


Lunch Break

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Dead Mount Death Play (Manga)
Genre: Beating, Gangsters, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Slash Goggles, Violence, Yakuza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28185243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: Tsubaki gets into a little trouble on his own
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Lunch Break

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Puimoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puimoo/gifts).



"Well, I'm off to lunch! See you later!" Tsubaki said, waving cheerfully at the rest of Comps-3.

"Do you want me to come with you, Iwa-san?" Arase asked quietly.

Tsubaki smiled brightly."No no! No need to interrupt whatever you're doing! I'm just grabbing a quick bite!"

Arase raised an eyebrow, but didn't voice his suspicions. Tsubaki didn't blame him; Arase was tough to fool, but he _was_ just going to get lunch. And if that lunch happened to be from Clarissa's, where he could do a little discrete questioning, well, no one needed to know.

The kids - Polka Shinoyama and the girl - had already shown a mistrust of Arase, after the incident where he fought them; it had been clear from their body language at their fortune teller shop. And other than his own shocked reaction, he thought he was on decent enough terms not to scare them off if they happened by. Plus, if Arase was there, giving off his bodyguard vibe, none of Clarissa's bunnies would stay to flirt long enough for Tsubaki to learn anything.

| | |

"Well, that was a waste," Tsubaki muttered to himself as he left Clarissa's, carefully rebuttoning his shirt. He always had the top one unbuttoned - too tight around his throat, otherwise - but he tended to open one of two more when he was 'drinking' with the girls, and that wouldn't be a good look back at the office.

"Well well well, look what we found all on his lonesome," a voice said from behind him.

Tsubaki ignored it: if he pretended it wasn't about him, they might give up. And if it actually wasn't about him, he wouldn't accidentally insert himself into someone else's fight.

"Ooh, the prettyboy from Comps-3," another voice said.

Crap, it was about him. Tsubaki sighed. Still, ignorance was bliss, and he would simply continue to pretend he didn't hear them. He was only two blocks from Clarissa's, after all; well within her territory. If these goons didn't work for her, which he doubted, they might just be trying to bait him. Surely anyone stupid enough to start something in Clarissa's backyard wouldn't be too hard to beat!

"And he doesn't have his boyfriend around to protect him this time," said a third goon, stepping out of a doorway and into the alley.

Tsubaki finally stopped, eyeing the thug who was now partially blocking his path. Clearly they were talking about Arase, and from the sounds of it this group had tangled with Comps-3 before, but he didn't recognize them immediately.

"I'm not sure who to be more insulted for," Tsubaki drawled. "Me, that you think I can't take care of myself, or Arase, for thinking that I'm anywhere near his league, boyfriend-wise."

That confused the one in front of him enough that he had a good chance to slip by. They were only a half-block from the main road full of pedestrians, and Tsubaki was fairly certain they wouldn't start something with a cop in broad daylight surrounded by witnesses. He kept walking.

The quiet whistling sound was the only warning he had, and Tsubaki quickly lept to the side, out of the way of the iron pipe that sailed down the alley.

"You do know what the penalty is for attacking a cop, right?" He taunted, still inching towards the main street. "You wouldn't want to take this any further and find yourselves in a world of hurt."

"Eh, it'd be worth it," the closest one decided, then threw a wild punch.

Tsubaki deflected it, but because of their angles he was now pinned close to the wall. The two who had spoken up behind him were joined by three more, and another four approached from the main street. He was officially surrounded and wildly outnumbered. Arase might be able to take on ten at once, but Tsubaki's best was only five or six.

He was able to dodge and deflect their blows fairly well at first, and even dropped one with a vicious kick to the gut that had him on his hands and knees spewing. Unfortunately, that just drove the others on to press harder.

First a punch to the cheek got through his guard; soon after a long knife slashed his shoulder. Tsubaki managed to drop a second thug out cold, but the move required him to lunge away from the wall, and that left his side exposed. He wasn't fast enough to deflect the bat that connected full force with his ribs.

Through the sudden wave of pain, he heard a loud crack and knew that at least one of his ribs had just been broken. Unable to defend himself as he doubled over from the blow, Tsubaki saw the pipe descending out of the corner of his eye. It hit his back, driving him down to his knees with another crack.

Tsubaki managed to stagger back to his feet, but he was much slower, and the blows continued to rain down. He was quickly hit again, and a blow to the back of his knee dropped him down to the ground. He did his best to protect his most vulnerable spots, but it was a lost cause, and a particularly sharp blow to the head ended it. The darkness enveloped him.

| | |

When Tsubaki regained consciousness, the first thing he was aware of was the bright light on the other sides of his eyelids. The second was the warm, heavy feeling that he recognized as the strong painkillers they must have him on. The third was the smell of Arase's cologne.

Adding up the clues, he knew that he must have been found and taken to the hospital, and that Arase was now with him. It also meant that he was alive, which was always nice to confirm. He could probably probe a little deeper and try to figure out where exactly he hurt, but he didn't particularly want to know. Wiggling everything would just make the pain more clear, and there was plenty of time for that in the future.

But, the least he could do was open his eyes and see how Arase was.

The room was blurry, which he half expected, but a few blinks did not resolve the issue. Blinking did make it clear to him that he almost certainly had a black eye on his left side; he couldn't fully open the lid from the swelling. The blurriness was in both eyes, however, and he couldn't quite explain that.

"You have a concussion; the blurry vision is a common side effect," Arase seemed to read his thoughts. "You'd also be pretty nauseous if they didn't have you on something for that."

Tsubaki tilted his head slightly, doing his best to ignore the busts of pain from his neck and the back of his head when he did. He was rewarded, however, by the blurry - but none the less unmistakable - sight of Arase beside him.

"Wh-"

"It's probably better if you don't talk, Iwa-san," Arase said quickly. The blurry Arase moved, and Tsubaki felt a straw poke him in the lips. He took a small sip - he knew better than to gulp down water on a queasy stomach. "Don't worry; I'll try to cover everything."

"You were jumped by our newest gang; the _hi no deshi_. Apparently they worship the Fire-Breathing Bug and are pretty mad that Comps-3 caught him. I'm told that Clarissa is furious that they moved in on her turf without her knowledge." Arase snorted.

Tsubaki couldn't make out his expression, but figured that Arase was frowning disparagingly at the stupidity of the gang. He, better than most, understood the rules of the underworld, and the way the bigger players acted as clearing houses for the punks beneath them. Clarissa wouldn't go against a troublemaker like the Fire-Breathing Bug without her own troublemaker like the Grim Reaper at hand, but some wannabe punks? Her girls would chew them up for breakfast.

"I got there just as the last few were being put down hard by the Youtoukorou bouncers. One of the bunnies was checking on you. They said you put down two on your own? Not the most impressive result, especially for a cop." Arase shook his head. "You're gonna give Comps-3 a bad name."

He wanted to say "give me a break," or "no worse than the reputation you give us," but the idea of talking hurt too much right now. Even the idea of rolling his eyes hurt too much right now. Still, he did have one important question that Arase seemed to have skipped. "How-"

"Oh, how'd I know?" Arase thankfully caught on immediately. "Well, _that_ surprised me. I was just finishing my own late lunch when a certain informant's drone landed right on my head. As soon as I grabbed for it, Kuruya-kun spoke through it. Said you were in trouble near Youtoukorou and to follow it. Lo and behold the little lowlife led me right to you."

"Is that any way to thank a guy?" A slightly mechanical voice shot back.

Tsubaki was momentarily confused, until he saw a slight blur in the air above Arase. He also, now that he was looking for it, was able to hear the faint whir of the drone's propellers, which he had previously ignored as hospital machinery.

"Sorry I didn't spot you until it was too late," the drone - Kuruya-kun - continued. "Anyway, Clarissa will be glad to know you're safe. She said to tell you that once you're up to it the first glass of the 60,000 Yen top shelf is on her."

The blur moved, and Tsubaki got the impression that it was flying out of the open window.

"Before you ask, I have no idea what their angle is," Arase said, "but if I had to say, I think someone at Youtoukorou is secretly fond of you."

Tsubaki didn't think that Clarissa cared that much for him, and he'd had far fewer interactions with Kuruya-kun than Arase, but there were others, he supposed. Perhaps even someone that he didn't realize was associated with them - that symbol at the fortune teller shop had come from somewhere, after all. Something to puzzle over when his brain wasn't trying to slosh out of his ears, perhaps.

"You'll be here a while, but Fumiyo Yamada's already got a rotation for when each member will come visit you and catch you up on cases." Arase continued, his falsely cheerful tone masking something else that Tsubaki - in his condition - couldn't quite identify. "In the meantime, you rest and just focus on healing. Leave the troublemakers to Tozawa and I, got it? And no more solo lunch breaks until I'm sure you can _actually_ take care of yourself."

Tsubaki hoped his garbled "mmm" sounded affirmative; he was too tired to tell. As he faded into darkness again, he wasn't sure if he imagined it or not, but he thought he felt a hand on his arm, and a barely audible, "I won't lose you." He was unconscious before he could tell Arase that he didn't want to lose him either.


End file.
